uchicagovegfandomcom-20200215-history
Eating Vegan/Vegetarian Outside of Hyde Park
Sometimes your workload will permit you to travel outside the limits of Hyde Park. These times are not frequent, but when they do appear, here are some options for vegan and vegetarian dining! The Chicago Diner An all-vegan heaven/restaurant with two locations - one on Halsted near Boystown and one in Logan Square (the latter including a bar yay!). Their menu is primarily vegan comfort food, including seitan chicken wings, nachos, poutine, enormous burgers, this phenomenal pierogi quesadilla for when you're like fuck it I'm carb-ing out, and a Reuben. Also salads but, like, come on. They have brunch menu served until 3:00 mmmm brunch!! Two meals so you can order twice the food! If you come to the Chicago Diner, it's pretty much expected that you'll try one of their (deservedly) award-winning vegan shakes - the large is only a dollar more than the small and the servers will make sure you are aware of this great deal. Also, if you come on your birthday you get free dessert that your friends will try to eat before you even blow out the candle J J J West Town Bakery and Diner Not an exclusively vegan or vegetarian hangout, but they do have a lot of options for us! *The bakery is open all day, and about half of the products they sell on any given day (cookies, brownies, cakes, cake balls, cupcakes) are vegan, while the other half are good for vegetarians. They're super super good and not very expensive! *The diner is only open until 3:00, but definitely worth getting up early for to go get brunch. I'm really into brunch. For vegetarians, they have omelets, French toast, and all the vegan food! The vegan food includes biscuits and gravy, several pancake and waffle options that are basically dessert, and a bahn mi sandwich made with tofu, along with various sides like fries and such. I would recommend the ethereal s'mores pancakes which you probably won't be able to finish but will take home for leftovers and eat straight out of your refrigerator because it tastes like a brownie, but only in little pieces because you and your roommate shared a to-go box and you don't want her to realize you're eating her portion too until it's all gone. Original Soul Vegetarian Yo this restaurant serves all-vegan soul food. Vegan soul food!!! If you're vegan or vegetarian for the health benefits okay this is probably not your haven, but everyone else head to 75th for BBQ tofu, onion rings, Southern-style greens, sloppy Joe's, jerk tofu, and all the other friend things that ruin men. They have dinner specials every night of the week (like mac n cheese) and on the weekends they serve breakfast food until 1:30 (Saturday) or 12:30 (Sunday) so you can start your day with a brunch of toast, pancakes, hash browns, grits, scrambled tofu, and sausage. Brunch!!! Mana Food Bar Located near Wicker Park, this all-vegetarian (and some vegan) restaurant can be on the pricier side, depending on what you order, but is really yummy! Google reviews describes it as a "trendy, intimate spot." Intimate. The menu is extremely varied, not sitcking to any one cuisine, and is divided into cold and hot dishes. So you could turn it into that one hot and cold game somehow maybe and that's a fun thing!! The trendy, intimate setting would be a good place to take a date for dinner and a game of hot and cold, probably. They also have a nice drink menu, with sake and *amazing* sake cocktails, if you're 21+ or have a killer fake. Fritz Pastry Vegan donuts!! What a concept! Situated in the mid-north district, it's a bit of a haul to get to by public transit, but their vegan donuts and array of other vegan pastries and baked goods are definitely worth it. They have multiple donut flavors, cinnamon rolls, scones, muffines, brownies, and homemade vegan poptarts. It's also not too expensive (mostly between $2-$3), so when they ask what you'd like and you panic and say one of everything vegan it only ends up costing you $23 after tax. And hey guess what else they serve on the weekend, ~brunch~! They're closed on Mondays but on other days I would recommend getting there fairly early because it's a pretty popular/small place and they do sell out. Green Zebra This place fancy. Located near West Town, this is an all-vegetarian restaurat that recommends reservations for their fancy food at their fancy establishment. Over half the menu is either vegan or can be prepared vegan (including desserts!). They have a "philosophy" page on their website which describes their "appreciation for purity of ingredients" that "celebtrate the fresh produce of each season." Wow. The menu's really like farm-to-table, minus the farm animals. Go here for nice events or if your parents are in town or if your date was mad when you took them to Mana and spent the whole evening yelling "Oh my god you're so cold right now are you even trying!" and now you gotta make up for it. Karyn's Cooked This is a branch of Karyn's Raw but I'm not even going to address that restaurant like just bake me some bread damn it!! Karyn's Cooked is located pretty squarely downtown, a little north of the Loop, and within walking distance of the Apple Store if you had to go to the Apple Store because your friend broke her laptop and didn't wanna go alone. It's pretty O.K. Cuisine is varied, ranging from nachos and tofu flautas to polenta and lasagna to cheeseburgers. You can order a side of gluten-free enzymes for $4 I swear to god. It's the kind of restaurant that's cool if you're in the area but that you wouldn't make a trip exclusively for. Also, pass on the desserts.